Monday, December 15, 2008

Now this really is hard to imagine actually happening

Not like everything else: the most expensive bottle of water, the largest building, acrylic wall, mall, magazine cover and whatever else can be blown up to Dubai proportions. But the Palazzo Versace Hotel in Dubai is planning to have an air-conditioned beach when it opens in 2010. Something about heat-absorbing pipes under the sand and giant wind-blowers. That's right: when it is 50 degrees (and that is how hot it gets) its guests can be burnt to a crisp under the searing August sun without even realising it. Lovely. Also probably great for the environment.

They are also planning to cool their pool, which is a novel idea (aside from the aforementioned environmental implications). Swimming in the UAE in the summer, anywhere, is like taking a hot bath in a steam room.